NAT AGAIN!
Cubs back in NLCS after outlasting Harper & Co. in bizarre Game 5
WASHINGTON— As long as the wondrous tradition of old timers lifting grandkids onto their knee to relate tales of extraordinary deeds exists, Game 5 of this National League Division Series will be recalled.
And then both grandparent and grandchild likely will retch.
The Nationals grabbed a page out of the Bizarro Baseball World playbook. They summoned Max Scherzer to protect a one-run lead in the fifth inning and saw their ace implode. That was followed by a breakdown from catcher Matt Wieters. Later, the potential go-ahead run was picked off in the eighth inning. The Cubs, not exactly forging a diamond masterpiece either, gladly accepted all the slop and held on for a 9-8 series-clinching victory that ended on a Bryce Harper strikeout.
The win advanced the defending world champ Cubs into their third straight NLCS, pitting them in a rematch of 2016 against the Dodgers.
“It’s either exultation or being a bug on a windshield. It’s one of the two things,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “You feel great and it’s euphoric, it really is, when you win that game and you move on to the next round.
So call Washington squished against a postseason windshield again. The Nationals have lost all four postseason series since the franchise moved here from Montreal in 2005.
But these bugs did not go quietly into the windshield of the night. The Nationals, despite leaving 14 men on base, battled and constantly threatened in a seemingly endless game that was better suited for a tie as both sides bungled. Trailing 9-6 in the seventh, Washington loaded the bases against Carl Edwards Jr. and starter Jose Quintana. Harper, the potential go ahead run, hit a sacrifice fly. Closer Wade Davis was summoned and struck out Ryan Zimmerman.
In the eighth, two walks made pinch-hitter Adam Lind the potential go-ahead run but Davis induced a double-play grounder. Michael A. Taylor, though, who had slugged a three-run homer earlier, one day af- ter his Game 4 grand slam, singled and it was 9-8. Jose Lobaton singled and with first and second was picked off by catcher Willson Contreras. The call originally was safe, but the Cubs challenged and after a 1:56 review, Lobaton was out.
Taylor homered in the second, when Daniel Murphy also victimized starter Kyle Hendricks with a solo shot, and Washington had an early 4-1 lead.
In a series in which the first four games produced a combined 34 hits and 20 runs, pitching had dominated. Until Thursday. Control checked out early. Defense wasn’t far behind.
In an “all-hands-on-deck” scenario for both teams, the Nationals, up 4-3, brought in Scherzer, who had carried a no-hitter for 6 ¹ /3 innings of Game 3 Monday, to stabilize matters in the fifth.
Twenty-eight pitches, 10 batters, four runs, three hits, one strikeoutpassed ball, one throwing error, one catcher’s interference, one hit batsman, one intentional walk and 17 belly laughs later, it was 7-4 Cubs.
Scherzer got two quick outs. Then he yielded two singles. Addison Russell doubled home two down the left field line. Jason Heyward was intentionally walked. Javier Baez fanned but strike three eluded Wieters, whose retrieval throw wound up in right, scoring the third run. There was a catcher’s interference by Wieters before Scherzer next hit Jon Jay. Voila! Four runs, 7-4 Cubs lead.
It became 8-4 in the sixth when Russell hit a shot to left that Jayson Werth slid for — and missed. It went for an RBI double against reliever Brandon Kintzler.
The Nationals got within 8-6 in the sixth. Werth walked with two out, Harper doubled and Zimmerman walked, ball four becoming a run-scoring wild pitch from Mike Montgomery. Murphy next doubled in Harper.
The spread quickly became three on two hits and Kris Bryant’s fielder’s choice. The Nats challenged Jay’s slide into second but the call stood.
Both starters, Washington’s Gio Gonzalez(three innings) and Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks (four) had short nights.
Chicago let Gonzalez slip through a first-inning noose. Jay doubled and was wild-pitched to third and scored on Anthony Rizzo’s bounce out. The Cubs loaded the bases on two walks and a single. But Gonzalez caught a break through the aggressiveness — or impatience — of Heyward who jumped on a 1-0 fastball and grounded meekly to first.